Walking With Faith: GZ....First full day

It's 2 p.m. here, and all is quiet in our hotel room. Annabella is taking a MUCH needed nap, we've just washed our clothes, and Greg is ironing a few to help them dry faster. Today we started early at 7 :30 A.M. meeting our friends Kim and Kevin for breakfast at the hotel buffet. After that we had just enough time to make a couple of copies of Annabella's passport that we needed for some paperwork here, and then we headed off to the Six Banyan's Temple.

Being in an active temple was interesting to see, but heart breaking as well. To watch these people worship their idols, burning incense and bowing and praying, was just awful. I honestly didn't enjoy the Temple tour at all. I prayed as we walked for God to move these people, I prayed for the people who are so lost to open their hearts and minds to Jesus, and that one day I would again see them in heaven. Greg got lots of pictures, and Annabella was very happy the whole way, so that was a plus!

After the temple, we headed over to The Chen house. In America we spell it Chan, as in Jackie Chan. The Chan family is one of the wealthiest and oldest families in this province. The house was built around 1500 years ago, and it took 8 years to build. The intricacy of it was amazing! We were able to see several of the exhibits with in the house as well including the furniture, embroidery, and bone carving displays.

It was SOOOO hot outside, and the first two stops were both outside. We were all soaking wet, and even Annabella looked like a cooked lobster she was so hot. She ran out of pedialite right at the end of the tour, and got really, really fussy. We ran into a shop really quickly and bought her some pear juice, and that seemed to do the trick to calm her down.

Once we calmed her, it was time to head to the Arts and Crafts shopping center. Inside was air conditioned, and that was AWESOME! We found my Mom a tea pot, and then I found a beautiful ring and Greg bought me a jade bangle. We also got Annabella a t shirt that says little sister in Chinese. Right at the end of the shopping she began to melt down completely. It was an hour past her nap time, and she was so tired! I finally had to leave the shopping center with her, and confine her to the bus as there was NOTHING that we could do to console her, and it was upsetting the people in the center. Greg paid and met me on the bus, and finally after about 20 straight minutes of crying, she calmed down. She stayed awake for the 20 minute trip back to the hotel, and within 5 minutes of getting to our room, she was out like a light. Sleep = happy baby, No nap= VERY inconsolable baby!

We've opted to skip lunch as we will be heading out to a group dinner tonight at 5 at the Macao Street restaurant by the hotel.

Tomorrow we will have her medical check up in the morning, and her TB skin test. Then we will have to get her visa photo taken and we hopefully will be back at the hotel by nap time. I don't have our papers handy, but I think that's all we have for tomorrow until the dinner cruise at 5.

Being in Guangzhou is like being in a different world compared to Zhengzhou. ZZ was such a hard place, it was filled with people who spoke NO English, and communication was pretty much nonexistent. One night we went to Pizza Hut for dinner, and Greg kept pointing at the picture of a pepperoni pizza. They could not even understand that we wanted a pepperoni pizza, and we wound up with cheese! Food was expensive, because the only place you could really get what you wanted, or even HOPE to communicate was inside the hotel. The hotel was smoky, and even though we had air conditioning and a cold fridge, we never seemed to be cool enough. The pool was too deep and cold to swim in with Annabella, and the kiddie pool was really just a hot tub with cold water in it.

The hotel here is AMAZING! There are many restaurants, all cheaper than in ZZ. There are shops like Polo for kids, a candy shop, two massage places, a nail salon, a shop where you can buy a real Cuban cigar, and a Starbucks. There is a 7-11 caddy corner from the hotel, about 1 minutes walk! There is a pool and a park INSIDE the hotel! The McDonald's is in the hotel parking lot, so even though it is wretchedly hot outside, it really isn't even necessary for us to go out. In ZZ the wal mart was about a mile away, and you had to walk it. Pizza Hut and KFC were past the Wal-Mart, and none of us ever found McDonald's there. The guides were not very friendly, and though they were efficient, and by the end of our stay we were all grateful for that efficiency, we were glad to find a much more personable set of reps here.

Well, I'm going to try to get the pictures from this morning uploaded before Annabella wakes up, so I'd better go for now. I may try to update again tonight, but most likely I will just save it for tomorrow. We are hoping to be able to watch the live broadcast of NorthStar tonight, but it will be 10 P.M. our time, so we will just have to see how early we have to be up tomorrow, and how we feel after dinner.

Thank you for your continued prayers for our family and our group. I am praying that Annabella will begin accepting Greg more, as it's been a bit tough on both of us, her preferring me to do EVERYTHING. I have to hold, feed, change, clothes, bathe, comfort her, even push her stroller. Greg has been trying to grab what moments she will allow him to grab, and we both know she will eventually trust him, but for now, and while we are here it just makes it harder on us both. Please pray for patience and understanding for us, and for acceptance for her. Also pray that her physical and photo goes well tomorrow and that we make it back to the hotel with no major meltdowns!